Electromechanical transducer devices for controlling functions of a vehicle transmission or of a vehicle drive such as gearshift levers that can be moved into various different shifting positions are known as such in the state of the art. When it comes to gearshift levers for manual or automatic transmissions, it is common practice to employ a plurality of different Hall sensors in order to detect the various shifting positions such as P, N, R, D of the gearshift lever. In this context, it is provided to arrange a circuit board in parallel to the swiveling shaft of the lever, said circuit board being fitted with individual Hall sensors located at a distance from each other.
Here, the arrangement of the Hall sensors is configured in such a way that each individual Hall sensor can detect one specific position of the gearshift and selector lever. Such Hall sensors are also configured to generate a binary signal that provides information about whether a magnetic element arranged on the gearshift or selector lever is located opposite from the Hall sensor. A plurality of Hall sensors located at a distance from each other have to be arranged so as to be distributed over a relatively large surface area and they have to be electrically contacted so that every conceivable shifting position of the gearshift lever can be unambiguously detected.
German utility model DE 20 2007 000 210 U1 describes a shift-by-wire actuation device for a vehicle transmission. The device consists of a gearshift lever that is mounted on a first shaft by means of a gearshift lever receptacle. On a bearing journal of the gearshift lever receptacle, there is a permanent magnet that cooperates with an oppositely positioned Hall sensor in order to directly detect the angle position of the gearshift lever.
European patent application EP 0 075 693 A1 describes a speed selector for a transmission in which the position of a gearshift lever can be detected contact-free by means of magnet-sensitive sensors and by means of magnets affixed to the gearshift lever. The individual magnet-sensitive sensors are arranged here in such a way that a dedicated sensor is provided for each gearshift lever position that is to be distinguished, or else fewer sensors than the number of gears are provided, whereby then the position of the gearshift lever can be ascertained according to a code from the combination of the sensors that are being actuated in each case.
A drawback of such prior-art transducer devices is the use of a plurality of Hall sensors and the relatively large surface area of the circuit board associated with them. This is particularly disadvantageous in terms of the limited installation space available in the vehicle.
Moreover, such position-detection devices commonly employed in the state of the art have to be individually adapted to the geometry and the configuration of the gearshift or selector lever. As a result, a circuit board that has been especially configured and adapted to the given circumstances is always needed for different vehicle types with their different gearshifts and selector levers. This proves to be very much of a drawback, especially in case of a wide range of gearshift or selector mechanisms with gearshift levers of different lengths. Especially when a vehicle is configured as a variant with the steering wheel on the left or on the right, this calls for an arrangement and configuration of the circuit board that is adapted to the variant with the steering wheel on the left or on the right in terms of the gearshift or selector lever.